At Everton Primary School we believe that the teaching of reading is integral to a child’s understanding and appreciation of the world around them; a platform that allows the children of Everton Primary School to see beyond what they know, share in cultural experiences, and develop the vocabulary they need to effectively express themselves.

Intent

We aim to have pupils leave Everton Primary School with a lifelong love for reading. We are committed to sharing high quality and vocabulary rich texts with the children. Throughout each Key stage staff read a range of texts aloud to the children to model fluency, expression and intonation. Exposing the children to a range of text types helps to build curiosity about the world around them, kindness and respect of different cultures and communities and supports the children’s independence in exploring a range of genres.

It is important that children are motivated to read at home regularly; when their reading opportunities increase, so does their fluency and stamina which in turn increases their enjoyment of reading. Therefore, the link between children’s motivation to read and reading for pleasure is reciprocal. We know that reading for pleasure is beneficial not only for reading outcomes, but for wider learning enjoyment and mental wellbeing. We strive to foster a love of reading both in school and at home and believe that if a child doesn’t enjoy reading, they just haven’t found their favourite book yet! We understand the significance of parents and carers in supporting their children to develop both word reading and comprehension skills and we endeavour to build a home-school partnership which enables parents and carers to have the confidence to support their children with reading at home.

Children will leave Early Years being able to apply the phonemes, digraphs and trigraphs taught within Phase 2, 3 and 4 to decode unfamiliar words. They will show a desire to read for enjoyment and be able to confidently talk about their favourite stories and why they like them. They will begin to show an understanding of a range of text types, media types and genres and demonstrate this by retelling stories and narratives using their own words, recently introduced vocabulary and through role play.

Children will leave key stage 1 with a secure knowledge of phases 1-6 phonics. By the end of Year 1 children will have mastered using phonics to decode and blend when reading and segment when spelling. By the end of Year 2 children will show a love for reading and a desire to read for enjoyment. They will be building and developing their skills to read confidently, fluently, with good understanding and able to use a range of independent strategies to self-monitor and correct. Children will show independence with reading and demonstrate fluency skills when reading aloud as well as having the ability to orally retell a story, without prompts, discussing the actions of characters and events, cause and effect and identify themes. By the end of Key stage 1 children will have the ability to respond to a range of questions about the text both orally and extending to written form.

At Everton Primary School we aim for children to leave our school having built the skills to read confidently, fluently, with good understanding and able to use a range of independent strategies to self-monitor and correct. They will have been exposed to and have interacted with a range of text types in lesson time as well as having had the opportunity to explore different text types independently. Children will have an interest in words and their meaning, developing a growing vocabulary in both spoken and written form. They will have had the opportunity to use and develop their imagination, inventiveness and critical awareness and have developed a wide technical vocabulary to articulate their responses.

Implementation

At Everton Primary school we use the ‘Unlocking Letters and Sounds’ Phonics Scheme which was validated by the DfE in December 2021. We begin teaching phonics in the first week of Autumn Term in Early Years and children make rapid progress in their reading journey. Children begin to learn the main sounds heard in the English Language and how they can be represented, as well as learning ‘Common Exception’ words for Phases 2, 3 and 4. They use these sounds to read and write simple words, captions and sentences. Children leave the Early Years class being able to apply the phonemes and digraphs taught within Phase 2, 3 and 4.

The learning in EYFS is linked to a class book that is changed weekly. The class text is read daily giving the children  time to become familiar with the story. New vocabulary from the text is taught each week and displayed around the classroom to ensure a language rich environment. Guided reading in taught 4 times a week and every child has at least one individual read with an adult each week. The lowest attaining 20% of pupils are closely monitored, daily personalised interventions are put in places and additional reads with an adult are implemented to ensure no child gets left behind.

 In Key Stage 1 ‘Unlocking Letters and Sounds’ is used to revisit Phase 4 and teach Phase 5a, b and c phonics. In Year 1, through Phase 5a, b and c, the children will learn any alternative spellings and pronunciations for the graphemes they already know and will learn additional Common Exception Words. In Year 2, phonics will continue to be revisited to ensure mastery of the phonetic code and any child who does not meet age related expectations will continue to receive support to close identified gaps. To ensure no child is left behind at any point in the progression, children are regularly assessed and supported to keep up through bespoke 1-1 interventions. These include GPC recognition and blending and segmenting interventions. The lowest attaining 20% of pupils are closely monitored to ensure these interventions have an impact. Children in Key Stage 1 receive 1 guided reading session per week as well as 1 comprehension session per week. Each child reads with an adult at least once per week.

At Everton Primary we promote a ‘phonics first’ approach and in both our guided reading sessions at school and in the books that children are assigned to take home. The texts are very closely matched to each individual child’s current phonics knowledge so that every child can experience real success in their reading. In these crucial early stages of reading we primarily use books from Ransom Reading Stars Phonics, to ensure complete fidelity to the Unlocking Letters and Sounds progression we follow. Once children have a secure knowledge of phonics and are confident reading the Ranson Reading Stars Phonetically decodeable books, accelerated reader is used to assess Y2 children and they then have access to books in their individual ZPD level to choose from the library.

Every child in Key Stage 2 has 5 reading lessons a week. During each reading lesson a different reading skill will be focussed on; prediction, vocabulary, retrieval, inference and a summary lesson. Every class has a focus text for the half term/term that is read to them by the class teacher, they will model fluency, expression and intonation. The reading focus and new vocabulary is displayed in the classroom. If children can’t read with fluency yet, they will receive additional intervention from a teacher or trained TA, to develop their fluency. Similarly, is a child doesn’t have automaticity skills yet, they will receive phonics intervention, in the form of the ‘ambitious expectations’ intervention by ‘Unlocking Letters and Sounds’. Accelerated reader STAR reader assessments are used to individually assess childrens reading ability and they are given a ZPD level, they then have access to a wide range of books withing their own ZPD level to choose from in our school library.

Throughout school we are committed to sharing high quality and vocabulary rich texts with the children. All texts that are shared in class are specifically chosen to support language and literacy development. The key texts in each class are read aloud to the children by staff. The staff ensure that when reading aloud they model fluency, expression and intonation. Having a range of text types in the texts that we share, helps to build curiosity about the world around them, kindness and respect of different cultures and communities and supports the children’s independence in exploring a range of genres.

Impact

Our main aim is for the children at Everton Primary School to develop a love for reading and show an enjoyment of reading for pleasure. Therefore the impact we expect to see is children throughout school, across all ages, showing a deep love for a wide range of books; talking confidently and fluently about what they have read; using age appropriate vocabulary when discussing texts and writing about what they have read, and using that vocabulary to effectively express themselves; using reading as a strategy to learn independently, seeing beyond what they already know and using reading as a tool to gain more information; enjoying reading wherever they are; showing confidence and resilience in their reading ability by using strategies to decode and find meanings for unknown words; showing independence in their reading journey by choosing books they want to read; and over all have a lifelong love for reading.